LAS-ELC Project Attorney Charlotte Noss has been appointed to serve on this first-ever San FranciscoWage Theft Task Force. This new policy making body was formed by the Board of Supervisors to efficiently organize city resources in the fight against wage theft.

Wage Theft occurs when employers fail to pay workers the wages they are due. These violations of wage and hour laws are rampant across the country, even in San Francisco. This city has the highest minimum wage in the country and its own labor enforcement agency, yet workers in San Francisco still experience wage theft in extremely high numbers.

The Task Force is the next step in a very successful Campaign to End Wage Theft in San Francisco. The Campaign, organized by the SF Progressive Workers Alliance (PWA), achieved the unanimous passage of the Wage Theft Ordinance in 2011 to enhance the city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) efforts to combat wage theft.

The Task Force, formed at the urging of PWA, also passed unanimously through the SF Board of Supervisors. The Task Force Members include representatives from OLSE, the San Francisco Police Department, City Attorney, District Attorney, Department of Public Health, Office of Small Business, and Treasurer/Tax Collector. In addition to Ms. Noss, community members Shaw San Liou of the Chinese Progressive Association, Terrance Valen of the Filipino Community Center and Ace Weisman from Young Workers United will also serve on the Task Force. They will be joined by three employer representatives from Mission Pie, El Rio, and the Miller Law Group.

The Task Force was launched earlier this month by Dolores Huerta. This recent Congressional Medal of Honor winner, President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, joined Supervisors David Campos and Eric Mar to inaugurate this groundbreaking Task Force.